The Pandora Box Read Online Free PDF Page B

to be treated humanely. Especially if they were trying to make amends for it.
    So she took it upon herself to get him out and to take him to the safest house she knew of. It was her youngest brother’s church in a small rural community, high up in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state.
    As for the “treasure hunting” part of the proposition, she had promised they would all talk more about that after they got there. After all, there was no law against treasure hunting.
    At any rate, the old man had been so overwhelmed at the generosity and commitment of her family to help him during his most desperate hours that he promised a sizable donation to whatever charity they chose. Something that would prove to be a miracle for the struggling orphanage her oldest brother Dan and his wife, Myra, ran in Somalia. One they had all been praying a long time for, simply because there were not enough buildings for the amount of kids who kept pouring in. Happy ending for everybody if Peterson came through with even a little of his promise.
    And now… his entire fortune belonged to her.
    Why, she could accomplish more good with that kind of money in a year, than a lifetime of investigative reporting! Her career had not turned out to be all she expected anyway. There weren’t many reporters like Nellie Bly anymore. Champions of the poor and underprivileged who actually managed to change the world with their words. The world itself had changed.
    Today’s newspapers were big business. Now, they were governed by ratings and influenced by advertisers in much the same way the entertainment industry was. Besides that, the common people didn’t feel as responsible for society as they used to. Didn’t seem like it anyway. The truth was, other than her “scandal piece” for the editor’s yearly human interest award, the rest of her year was filled mostly with covering social events and community projects.
    One more reason why Peterson’s legacy felt like such a temptation right now.
    But she must not forget that old man had been tantalizing people with this crazy story for years. Still, the last missing piece of information... the item that would prove everything... rested in her hands, alone. “Lord, what should I do with it?” she murmured half-aloud as she continued to stare down into the dark, sleeping harbor.
    What should she do if Pandora’s box was exactly where he said it would be and actually had a key in it? The key to safety deposit box 127. According to Peterson, he had paid the rent in advance with plans of returning for it himself when he got out of Wyngate.
    What he hadn’t planned was that no one ever returned anywhere after Wyngate.
     
     
     
     

5
     
    Enticed
     
    “ But not once did I think of shirking my mission. Calmly, outwardly at least, I went out to my crazy business.” ~ Nellie Bly
     
    Well, there certainly wasn’t much she could do this late at night. So she backtracked through the center of town and stopped for a few hours’ sleep at one of the beach-side hotels. But early the next morning, when her car finally wound its way down that little road toward the waterfront... the very moment she caught her first clear view of all the fishing boats gently bobbing at the docks they were so neatly tied to...
    She actually felt like she had been there before.
    Nels had described the picturesque place that well. Steep green hills rose up on either side of a long lazy river that widened where it emptied out into the sea. The marina was tucked away on the south bank, behind a man-made jetty that formed a straight placid channel which led out into the river.
    The first thing Dee noticed when she got out (besides the tang of salt in an early morning fog that was just lifting), was a large flock of seagulls circling overhead, calling and squawking to one another as if it were feeding time at the zoo. The object of their interest seemed to be a fishing boat pulled alongside a dock at a building farther down where